Tubular electrical conductor.



Patented Apr. 15, 1919.

W. HANDLEY. TUBULAR ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR. APPLICATION man AUG-1.1916- 1,300,265.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM HANDLEY, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR T0 TUBULAR WOVEN FABRIC COMPANY, OF PAWTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND, A CORPORATION OF RHODE ISLAND.

TUBULAR ELECTRICAL conmrc'ron.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 15, 1919.

Application filed August 1, 1916. Serial No. 112,597.

' To all whom it may concern:

conductor, and at the same time contains within its'own structure a continuous conductor of electricity or a plurality of such conductors. The invention also comprises the combination of such a tube with a contained conductor and with terminal connections to which said conductor and the conductor or conducting elements of the tube are joined.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 shows a fragment of a tube embodying my invention, partly broken away to show its internal construction, in connection with an electrical-fitting which is shown partly in section.

Fig. 2 is a cross section of the tube and of the contained conductor.

The same reference characters indicate-the same parts in all the figures.

The embodiment of my invention illustrated herein is a seamless woven tube having longitudinal warp strands or threads and to produce a. continuous seamless tube which as a whole is designated a. The warp strands are designated Z), I), and the weft or filling strands c, (I, e, f. The completed tube has an interior diameter or bore sufficiently large to admit an insulated conductor, providing a channel through which such conductor can be moved endwise in being installed. The conductor is shown in the drawings, the wire portion thereof being designated 9 and the insulation 71.

In the construction of tube illustrated in the drawings there are four weft strands, two of which a and e are electrical con-. ductors and are arranged in parallel helices alternating with non-conducting weft strands (Z and f. Said nonconducting strands are shown in section in that part of the drawing which represents the tube-as cut open, but are not otherwise shown, while the conducting strands are shown in full lines where the tube is cut open, and elsewhere in the tube by dotted lines; similar dotted line representation of the non-conducting strands being omitted to avoid confusion. Actually, however, in the tube here shown there is a continuous alternation in the coils of the two sorts of weft strands, each turn of a conducting weft strand being between the turns of two non-conducting weft strands, and vice versa, at the same time that successive turns of each conducting weft are between the two turns of the other conducting weft. The conducting strands c and 6 may be metallic Wires or ribbons, or have other forms, and are preferably wrapped with an insulating covering shown partly torn away at is in Fig. 1. The nonconducting weft strands and also the warp [strands is determined by the necessity for locking the turns of the weft threads together, preventing them from separating and from being distorted out of their helical form by external lateral pressure, and is great enough to secure this result.-

The tube with its conducting weft strands provides one of the members of an electric circuit, the other of which is constituted .by the contained conductor 9. Such tube may be applied in any situation where a conductor is required, and is shown in the drawing in connection with an outlet box Z having binding screws m and n for connecting the conductors with the terminals of the box. The end of the tube passes through a hole in the side of the box. The two conducting strands c and e are shown as twisted together and attached to the binding screw 'n, thus not only making electrical connection with such screw but also securing the tube so that it can not be withdrawn. The conductor g is attached to the screw m..

The conducting element or elements (a, e) of tube structure may be covered with any suitable insulating material such as paper, yarn, or vegetable fiber, asbestos, etc., wrapped or braided around it in any of the ways known in the art of producing insulating conductors, or otherwise.

It i to be understood that in every form 1110 in which I contemplate making the tube, the same is made of internal diameter greater than the diameter of the conductor which it is to receive, the tube being produced sepa rately from the conductor with an open interior, permitting a conductor to be placed within it whenever such arrangement is desired, and also permitting the tube to be used without an additional contained conductor. The tube is thus adapted to serve either as a protecting conduit for electrical conductors, or as a conductor itself, or to serve both purposes simultaneously. Among the useful results accomplished by the invention are the following. First, where the tube is employed both as a conductor andas a conduit, only one line of the combined tube and conductor is required for each circuit.

Second, two of the tubes may be used for the two conductors of the same circuit in place of the ordinary conductor, whereby the tube is adapted to be used for wiring in emergencies when ordinary conductors are not available, as well as in conditions where it is desired to dispense with the ordinary conductors.

,Third, the provision of a plurality of conducting elements in the structure of a single tube has two advantages,

(a) that where both are used as one portion of a circuit, of which a contained conductor or another tube is the otherportion, the plurality of wires divides the load, thus reducing danger of fire in case ofinjury to the insulation of one of the conductors and also maintains the circuit in case one of the conductors should break.

(6) The one tube. without a contained conductor may provide a complete circuit, one of the conductors embodied in its construction being the supply wire and another of these conductors the return wire for the current. 'here these wires are weft strands in a woven tube they are fully insulated from one another by the intermediate nonducting strands and by the interwoven warp strands.

It is also within my contemplation and invention to incorporate the conducting elements of the tube structure as warp strands, in the manner shown in my pending application Serial Number 2,055, filed January 13, 1915, instead of as wefts; using as many wires or other conductors as may be desired for the purpose in. place of certain of the non-conducting warp strands.

hat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A seamless woven tube having as its weft strands a plurality of conductors and a plurality of non-conductors arranged in alternation, the non-conducting strands being between the conducting strands, and longitudinally extending warpthreads interwoven with both the conducting and the non-conducting weft strands.

A tube composed of a plurality of conductors and a plurality of non-conducting strands laid in alternation and coiled helically about a common axis, whereby each turn of each conductor lies between turns of non-conducting strands, and other non-conducting strands crossing the said helically wound strands passing alternately over and under successive turns of said helically coiled strands. v

-3. The combination with a fabric tube embodying in its construction a conducting element, of an outlet box having an opening through which said tube passes and having a plurality of binding posts. and a conductor contained within said tube and connected with one of said binding posts, the conducting element of the tube being connected with the other binding post and preventing withdrawal of said tube from such opening.

l. The combination with an electrical connection box having a hole in its side and conductor-connecting means in its interior, of a flexiblefwoven conduit adapted to contain an electrical conductor and including, as one of the woven elements of-its structure, an electrically conductive wire; said conduit having an end inserted in such hole, and a part of such conductive element being unraveled and secured to said connecting means and being of a length preventing withdrawal of the conduit from the hole.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature.

WILLIAM HANDLEY. 

